SMART FACTORY UPGRADE Y OUR F ROBOTIC AUTOMATIO
FACT ORY WITH AT ON
TIONI
Is the age of mass production over? With consumers rejecting the one size fits all approach, many people want customised products that more closely fit their needs and express their personalities
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n this article, Julian Ware, ABB Robotics UK & Ireland sales manager, discusses why now is the time to upgrade to robotic automation to both meet these demands and scale up productivity. From cakes to cars, manufacturers are offering consumers the chance to design what they will buy – over 50 per cent of consumers are willing to purchase customised products.
Yet, we might ask, isn’t this incredibly labour intensive and time consuming? Instead of pressing the ‘go’ button on a machine and producing a run of identical items, we will need to constantly change the set-up of machines and swap programs and materials.
This could have major implications for productivity – if we define it as the output per worker, then surely spending more time swapping between ever more bespoke products can only decrease it?
FLEXIBILITY IS KEY
The UK, for one, cannot afford lower productivity. Although labour productivity in the UK has grown recently, it is still significantly lower than before the financial crisis of 2008. Politicians and industry leaders talk about the need to improve our productivity against our competitors, but there is no magic bullet.
However, we do have the next best thing - flexible automation. Based on robots, flexible automation systems are designed from the ground up to handle changes, whether in product design, volume, capacity or capability.
Automatically changing tooling, materials and programming, they eliminate much of the work involved in swapping over products, getting us
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closer to the ideal of batch size one/flexible production and improving UK productivity.
In fact, a study of automation, labour productivity and employment by Copenhagen Business School found that, if the UK became as automated as countries like Japan, Germany and Sweden, productivity would increase by 22.3 per cent. And we can forget any fears of automation leading to job losses - improvements from flexible automation would help boost employment by at least 7.4 per cent as new jobs are created to keep pace.
If we define productivity generally as doing more with less, then flexible automation wins on every metric – more output, less energy, better quality, less waste, improved predictability, lower floor space, improved health and safety.
SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS
For example, just look at the potential for cutting direct and overhead costs. With no requirement for minimum lighting or heating levels, robots offer a great opportunity to cut energy bills. Current estimates point to a potential saving of eight per cent for every 1°C reduction in heating levels, while ‘lights out’ working means savings of up to 20 per cent.
Robots can also help eliminate the need for workers to operate in dangerous, dull or dirty environments, taking over unpleasant, arduous or health-threatening tasks currently undertaken by manual workers. Using robots can decrease the likelihood of accidents caused by contact with machine tools or other potentially hazardous processes. As well as better health and safety for your staff, this also contributes to better productivity as workers take less time off for work-related
FACTORY&HANDL NGSOLUT ONS ORY&HANDLINGSOLI UTIONSI
injuries. Learning how to program and operate robots can also provide an attractive career.
SMES AWAKEN
UK companies large and small are waking up to the business benefits of robot-based automation. As well as cutting costs, robots are helping them expand into new product areas and attract new customers.
A good example is plastic promotions
manufacturer CHX Products of Cornwall. Since installing a robot cell 10 years ago, CHX has managed to keep up with the competition from international markets.
The cell gives a faster, less labour-intensive manufacturing process. Operating on a lights- out basis, the cell has cut production costs and minimised lead times. By making the product much more consistent, the amount of waste produced was also dramatically reduced. Not only that, but CHX’s ability to turn products around cheaply and quickly means that UK companies can now order low-cost plastic promotional products without having to get them shipped in from abroad.
THINKING B
THINKING BIG, STARTING SMALL
Automated factories can boost the UK economy by improving our productivity and attracting a new generation of our brightest people to consider a career in industry. It’s a fast-changing world and we cannot afford to be left behind.
ABB
www.abb.com
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